Review Round-Up: ‘Shanghai’ Is the Place to Be

In the political thriller “Shangai,” director Dibakar Banerjee takes an offbeat look at the drama of coalition politics and bureaucracy in India. Shown, Bollywood actors Kalki Koechlin, left, and Abhay Deol at the premier of the film.

“Until and unless you step out of your comfort zone and try something new, no new grounds will be broken, no new films will be launched, no new stars will be discovered, people won’t get to see new stories and our industry will not be injected with new blood,” director Dibakar Banerjee recently said.

With his latest film – “Shanghai,” a political thriller - he appears to be staying true to his words.

With “Shanghai,” which releases today, Mr. Banerjee takes an offbeat look at the drama of coalition politics and bureaucracy in India, featuring actors Abhay Deol, Emraan Hashmi and Kalki Koechlin in lead roles.

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Set in a fictional city called Bharatnagar –set to become the “next Shanghai” as a redevelopment project kicks off – the film starts off with the murder of a social activist who had been opposing the project. The film is an adaptation of Greek novel “Z” by writer Vassilis Vassilikos.

A high-ranking bureaucrat, played by Mr. Deol, is put in charge of the investigation and a local videographer, interpreted by Mr. Hashmi, claims to have key evidence to resolve the case.

Mr. Banerjee has for long been synonymous with films that tackle big issues without being overly preachy. There’s the 2006 comedy drama “Khosla Ka Ghosla,” about one family’s struggle to get their land back from a property shark, or the well-crafted black comedy about a super thief in his 2008 film “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye.” Then, with his 2010 film “Love Sex Aur Dhokha” –shot entirely on a digicam – he turned to the subject of voyeurism, honor killings and sting operations.

Here’s a roundup of what some critics had to say about “Shanghai.”

“Powerful cinema” is how Aniruddha Guha described the film in a review published in Daily News and Analysis. “Banerjee brings together great plot…some very good actors and a bunch of able technicians in a movie that clocks just a little under two hours, but occupies your mind for many after,” wrote Mr. Guha.

He added that the film has a story that “few filmmakers in this country would dare to tell.”

“Why just make a good film, when you have the wherewithal to make a powerful one? A film that can change perception; one that can make a statement, and push the envelope.”

Calling it “consistently engaging” and “extremely satiating,” Mr. Guha said the film manages to walk the thin line between mainstream and meaningful cinema. “There’s more to cinema than box office records and opening weekend numbers; Shanghai is the perfect example. Watch,” he said.

“Here at long last is a Hindi film that dares to defy the conventions of its chosen genre,” wrote Saibal Chatterjee in his review on NDTV, adding that the film “articulates a simmering rage at the sorry state of affairs in a country that is purportedly poised on the cusp of economic superpower status, but it does so neither through screechy bluster nor by means of preachy sermons.”

The film, he noted, “turns the screws slowly” on exposing the “anomalies that plague the world’s largest democracy.”

“The near-inchoate bursts of fear, loathing and anger from hapless victims serve to convey the weight of the crushing burden that ordinary folk must bear in a lopsided system designed for those who control the levers of power,” he wrote.

Praising the film for its firm screenplay, the review said that it “is an immeasurable pleasure to watch a Mumbai film that hinges as much on the unstated or barely suggested as it does on what is uttered and spelt out.”

He was also impressed by the use of sound and cinematography to capture perfectly both the tension and life in small town India.

In The Times of India, Gaurav Malani wrote the director “aptly adapts to the grammar of the bureaucratic background that strengthens the political drama.”

“Whether it’s the uncouth city, unruly party-men or Emraan Hashmi’s untamed street dance — every scene in the dirty narrative is just picture perfect,” he said.

Praising the performances of the cast, Mr. Malani said that the film “redefines” the lover-boy image of Mr. Hashmi, while Mr. Deol is “just perfect” and “skillfully restrained” as the officer.

“Dibakar Banerjee has consistently raised the bar with each of his releases. Though he doesn’t outshine himself this time, ‘Shanghai’ is a compelling watch,” he added.

Film critic Taran Adarshcalled the movie an “affluent work of art by a master storyteller.”

“It’s a film of our times. It evokes myriad emotions in you. It leaves you horrified, distressed… it may even make you livid,” he said.

For him, the film is one of the “bravest and most commanding movies of the decade.”

Terming it as a “must watch,” Mr. Adarsh says the film is a “serious motion picture” that has a “voice, that makes you think, that makes a stunning impact.”

He calls Mr. Deol the “vertebrae” of the film and said that the actor “gets all the nuances of his characters right.”

The critic described Ms. Koechlin’s performance as “awe-inspiring,” saying she “skillfully performs the part.”

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